Quick Mention: New FT-710

I was having some trouble with the FT-1200's digital port and frankly just hated using the FT-891, so I traded them both in on a new Yaesu FT-710.  I'll post some more on that second one later (it's going to be pretty negative), but on to the new radio and the good news.  The FT-710 came in on Saturday, and now that I've made a few SSB contacts and gotten the digital inputs sorted out, I'll say that (a) the digital signal I/O port stuff easy enough to set up, (b) the noise reduction is amazing and extremely useful, (c) in a handful of contacts I've gotten good signal reports, and (d) I'm keeping it.  Lots to love about this radio, but also lots to get used to.  Control-wise, it's half-way between a tiny backpacker like the FT-857d and a full-size desk monster like the FT-1200.  For the moment though I'll just post some pictures and get on with the day.

Much handier size for my purposes, with everything I need plus a number of things that I don't.

However to be of any use it all it has to play country music.  Does it?  Damn straight.

Picks up WSM just fine.  Eddie Stubbs would approve.  Look at that beautiful double-sideband AM signal on the waterfall.

Much, much more to sort out on this radio, but the basics are all in place.  Two big questions are how much will I take it to the field, and is it enough to justify the expense and clutter of a roll cage for it?  Only time will tell.  Onward to other things for the moment.

Great News, Everybody!

I have been unbelievably busy this past week.  Should have some relevant content soon.  However and in the meantime, enjoy some good news, at least for those of us on the Gulf and the Atlantic.

ps, later Monday: Well that didn't last long.

One for this Week

It's a slightly upbeat (as much as one can be about these things) song about a life well-lived.  RIP Earl Grey the Cat.

Happy Summer Solstice

Article giving exact times here at space dot com, but the main thing is that the solstice is today.

Bonus Article: Mystery monolith appears in Nevada desert at the BBC.  For some reason people keep putting these sorts of things up.  Attempts at art?  A misplaced desire to mark territory?  Some longing for aliens to come and teach us the next step in our march to the stars?  No idea.

Whatever you do, just don't dress up in a monkey suit and start dancing around in front of it.  The Nevada heat is crushing this time of year.

Don't forget the sunscreen.  That Nevada desert sun is brutal, especially today on the solstice.

Richard III (1995 version) – Yes, Watch

It's Shakespeare's play re-set in 1930's England with Ian McKellen as the villainous Richard of Gloucester murdering everyone between him and the throne and then going fascist – not terribly distant from what might have happened if Edward VII had not abdicated, though perhaps without some of the murder to get there since he was already there.  Here, watch the trailer and see for yourself.  It's a reasonable representation of what the movie holds:

Be sure to embiggen this trailer to watch.  It's much better that way.

There are lots of touches that bring this film to life.  Foremost, the post-WWI yet-not-quite-WWII feel of the technology stands out.  For example, when the dowager queen departs for France it is not by ship but instead aboard a de Haviland Dragon Rapide, a wonderfully-named short-haul airliner that was more or less the last of the biplanes.  Cigarettes everywhere, in keeping with the style of times.  It's an immersive experience, just close enough to living memory that it doesn't seem as foreign as the velvet pantaloons usually associated with Shakespeare productions.

Now for the one down side, the sound mix is abysmal.  Between the mix, the archaic dialect, and too many muttered lines, ten minutes in I was completely lost.  Fortunately the disc had an English subtitles option, so things worked out.  Compare to 1996's Romeo+Juliet, where both the actors' speech and the sound mix were clear as a bell, leaving the archaic English as a treat to work out on the fly.  That combination brought Shakespeare's original words crackling back to life.  Here, just turn on the subtitles from the start, sit back, and enjoy the movie.  It's not quite as good, but it will do.

Bottom Line: 4 out of 5 stars.  The sound mix could have been better, but the rest is as good as films get.

Sanity Seems to be Returning to Mountain Bike Companies

I ran headlong into this last year while buying the Anthem: nearly everything had 6"+ of suspension and weighed well into the mid-30's range.  Sorry, at my age if riding something takes 6" of suspension, I'm just walking it.  Or they were over-built hardtails for some damned jumping-around thing that nobody over 17 does.  Or... it's a fly-weight 110mm XC race machine that considerably lightens the load further by removing many, many dead presidents from one's wallet.  (yeah, guess which one I picked, and while it is cool to know that my bike cost more than my F-150, it's still... yeah)  While coming in from a test ride of a Cannondale, I actually heard the store guy arguing with a 50-something would-be buyer that six inches travel on a slack frame is the new hotness and perfectly suited for Munson (where anything over 2" is a waste) and that he'd just have to adapt.  The customer walked.  For that matter, so did I.  That razor-sharp Cannondale was a good 30% more than I was looking to spend.

Well, not everyone lives in the mountains of Colorado and California, and the times they are a'changing.  Two months back it was noted here that XC is Suddenly Cool Again, next here comes a company making a damned good sub-$2k gravel bike with a chromoly frame no less.  Now Specialized has made an about-face with a new 4" travel full-sus addition to their Chisel line for about half the price of the above-mentioned flyweight XC race bikes (link goes to an article at Singletracks online bike mag).  Things are definitely looking up.

And Away We Go

Nothing bad yet, but things are only beginning.

Can't Take the Backroad for the Moment

With a $350 million estimated cost, Louisiana doesn't have the cash to fix the Hwy 90 bridges between the Pearl River and New Orleans.  Damn.  And I always enjoyed that backroad route, it taking about half-again the travel time for the slower pace, salt marshes, history.

Bet I could still make it on the gravel bike.  If the mosquitoes and gators don't get me.

Thanks Dad

Glad you made it back and then to the 40th anniversary.  Wish you could've made it to the 80th.

Radio Repair Needed?

Just had the old FT-450D radio – you know, the one I'd burned the finals on 6+ years ago – repaired by Midwest Technical Services.  Fine job, quick turn-around, and reasonable price.  Give Tim a yell if you get too aggressive on tuning that random wire and happen to let the magic smoke out of your radio the way I did.

I tell ya, man.  First the Mustang, next this old radio – it feels good to get things working right again.

Gravel Bikes

Last week I was asked, "So, what is a gravel bike?"  Well, this is a gravel bike:

And this is my gravel bike.  It's a few years old (so old that gravel bikes had not yet fully speciated from cyclocross bikes), and I'd really like to have disk brakes and run wider tires, but hey I've got it and a box full of parts, so I might as well enjoy.  Got to say though, $1.5k-$2k for that Breezer does sound mighty reasonable, and I fully agree with the video's "if I had to choose one bike" sentiment.

One more cool-factor thing, Breezer is the follow-on company from the guy who torched up what's generally recognized as the first made-for-purpose mountain bike frame in the lineage evolving up from the old Schwinn ballooners the Marin crew was using at the time, into ultimately became what we know today.  Here's Breezer's history page.

Happy First Day of...

Oh, you know.  At least it's so good so far:

Things to do today list:

• top off the big LiFePO4 battery (it's on the charger now)
• fill & stabilize gas cans
• check chainsaw oil supplies, for both engine and bar

Got this plus a stack of other things to sort out.  Time to down this cup of coffee and get moving.  Welcome to hurricane season.